Creativity on Social Media: Insights from Media Strategist Carolyn Miller

The Appetite team recently met Carolyn Miller and asked her opinion on what it takes to be creative and successful online.

Carolyn is well recognised as a thought leader within the creative industries and has vast experience in delivering engaging keynote addresses. She is a regular panelist on ABC program ‘Gruen Planet’, and also appears on other shows such as The Today Show, Sunrise, and ABCNews24 as an expert in advertising and creative persuasion.

Q1: What characteristics do successful health & wellness social media communicators have in common?

It’s no coincidence that most of the health and wellness bloggers that are out there are beautiful, aspirational women! They all project a certain style of lifestyle that other women would view with a level of admiration: they are fit, they look great, are well styled, they have fantastic meals, they have good-looking friends / lounge rooms / local beaches and have a style of photography of their lives that showcases the highlights of their designer existence.

These images are carefully crafted – it’s not a huge surprise to discover that many health and wellness bloggers have communication or journalism degrees. They really do consider their ‘brands’, but then also try to make this lifestyle accessible by offering exercise hints, motivational statements, recipes and lifestyle choices that can be achieved by regular people.

Bloggers do also distinguish who they are going to be appealing to – having a key audience type in mind is essential to tailoring their messaging and making their content relevant. For instance, some bloggers are heavily into ‘fitspo’ rather than nutrition, other focus on managing weight (especially after having children), whilst others simply tap into current trends. In order to gain a real audience following, having a specific ‘reason for being’ really helps in crafting content that will resonate with this audience.

Q2: There’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram (and many more) – for the newbies joining social media… where should they start?!

Social media is a fantastic way to share content and gather feedback from your audiences, however different audiences prefer different channels. Facebook and Youtube are hubs for many of the other social spaces, being able to link content is very important and will increase the reach of your photos and videos. However, younger women are far more engaged on Instagram than women in their 40s or 50s, who tend to have a higher audience penetration in Facebook.

So the best social channel really depends on who your audience is”

LinkedIn has a lot of potential in Australia – it really is mostly used as a rolodex at the moment, however there is so much more capacity, especially in professional profiling. Likewise, Twitter is often used by journalists and professionals – it can be an easy way to build your brand by commenting on trending health and fitness topics – and can sometimes be a way for actually getting approached for comment in traditional media such as newspapers and radio.

Q3: Once we’ve decided what to use and how to go about it, what are your top tips for effective digital communications?

Talk in headlines and soundbites, long form content is only appreciated once people have engaged in the subject.

Ensure that you have a content strategy, major milestones in the year generally don’t change

Be discerning in your posts, don’t just post for the sake of posting – you will lose attention with wallpaper content

Be collaborative with your audience – ask them questions, get feedback and encourage their participation with you!

Remember that digital content is forever. Ensure that you only post content that is beneficial in the long run (nothing sensitive, dubious or illegal should even be considered)

Q4: Finally, can you please share any examples of successful social media communicators, we’d love to hear about some of the quirkier ones?

Actually Jessica Rowe has just started a quite little movement for health and wellness – the #craphousewife movement. I think that this has been perfectly timed with her book launch, and she’s going completely against the perfectly curated lives of these other bloggers.